


Katie Winchester

by livin_in_my_head_2



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-08-02
Packaged: 2018-12-05 22:01:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11587044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livin_in_my_head_2/pseuds/livin_in_my_head_2
Summary: A collection of stories (with no real plot) centered around a baby that the Winchesters found and adopted in this AU.





	1. Author's Note

Hello and welcome! Just a few important things to be stated before we get going here :)

First off, this story is a freeform AU. That means that I'm choosing to ignore plot points that are inconvenient for this fic, while others come into play. It is also set in an alternate universe - hence, I'm able to make up what characters my heart desires.

There ARE spoilers. This fic is set roughly around the beginning of season nine, so if you haven't watched that yet, you will read spoilers in here. Just warning you.

Basically, this story is a "what if?" that I was thinking about one day: what if Sam and Dean found a baby at the scene of one of their murders and were practically forced to adopt it because they had already taken it from the crime scene? That baby's name is Katie, and she is the star of this story.

I was originally going to publish the first chapter of this to my Supernatural one-shot book, but loved the idea so much that I'm making it its own book! There will be no consistent plot line in here - basically, it's just little snapshots of various moments in Katie's life, some more important than others.

Without further ado, let's get on with the fic!


	2. Katie's "Adoption"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Katie came to be the newest member of the Winchester family.

Dean gasped for air, scrabbling to sit upright against the bloodstained wall. He stared at the decapitated vampire before him with distaste. His knife lay a few feet away, dropped in a puddle of blood.

This fight had been a close one. This vampire had been strong and, above all, desperate, seeing as it was the last vampire from its nest. Strength, Dean could deal with. Desperation, on the other hand - that was much harder to handle.

Sam burst into the room, his own knife raised high, clean of blood. He lowered it slowly as he took in the scene, however - his brother wheezing on the floor, blood marring every surface, and a dead, headless vamp in front of him.

"We have a problem," Sam said, sounding even more breathless than Dean felt.

Dean groaned, staggering to his feet and grabbing his knife. "The fun never stops," he muttered sarcastically, following his younger brother from the room.

As the two boys walked down the hallway, Dean heard the problem long before he saw it. He took a deep breath, attempting to remain calm. /Oh, crap./

It was a baby.

Sure enough, Sam slid his knife into his holster and pushed open a door to reveal a child's bedroom, decorated in bright colors and full of toys. A rocking chair looked out of the window and from the crib opposite the doorway, a baby screamed.

"Oh, come on!" Dean groaned, his loud, abrasive voice just making the baby cry even louder. "Grab the baby, I'll call Kevin," he ordered Sam over the baby's sobs.

Sam shot him an incredulous look. "Dean, we can't just kidnap a /baby!/"

"What else do you propose we do? Tell the authorities that its parents were eaten by vampires?" Dean demanded. "I don't like this situation either, but all we can do right now is take it back to the bunker. We'll figure out where to go from there."

Sam sighed, giving up. He walked gingerly toward the crib as Dean dialed Kevin.

"Hey, Dean," Kevin greeted him lightly. "How's the case going?"

"Solved," Dean replied. The baby let out a particularly loud wail and he winced. "Mostly."

"Is that...a baby?" Kevin asked in confusion.

"Yes," Dean replied, too tired to beat around the bush. "I need you to whip up some sort of crib or...or /nest/ or something for it to sleep in."

"You're bringing it /here?/"

"While you're at it, see if we have any books on babies."

"You think the Men of Letters would have had /parenting/ books?"

"We've got our hands full, Kevin, so if you could just do this - "

"Sure, sure." Kevin hung up and Dean slid the cell phone back into his coat pocket. He turned around to find Sam holding the infant awkwardly, grimacing down at it as it continued to wail. Dean shook his head, crossing the room to the pair.

"That's not how you hold a baby," he told Sam. "Try to turn him like this - no, not like that - so his back is - screw it, just give him here."

"It's not a boy, Dean," Sam informed him as he handed over the baby.

"What? How do you know?" The room didn't fit any gender stereotypes - the walls featured animal stickers rather than anything traditionally feminine or masculine. Realization dawned on Dean's face. "Did you check?"

Sam shook his head and pointed at something above the door. Dean turned to see a flowery sign reading, "Katie."

"Girl it is, then," he said, nodding briskly and adjusting the baby in his arms. She suddenly stopped crying, cooed, and reached up to touch his chin. He froze.

"You look more scared of her than you did when you were fighting that vampire," Sam noted, humor lacing his voice.

"Shut up," Dean snapped, lowering his voice when the baby whimpered. "Let's just fill a bag with as much baby stuff as we can find. Then we won't have to buy anything."

Sam nodded, grabbing a baby bag from beside the changing table and starting to shove toys, books, and diapers into it. "Go check the bathroom," he told Dean.

"What for? She's not potty trained yet, probably. Can you potty train kids this little?" Dean hooked his hands under the baby's arms and held her away from him, looking her up and down.

"Dean, she can't even walk yet." When Dean shot him a confused look, Sam huffed in amusement and added, "So she can't be potty trained."

"Does that mean we'll have to...?" Dean sighed as his brother nodded in confirmation. "Great." Hugging the baby close to him once more, he left the room in search of the house's bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, the baby bag was heavy with hastily grabbed clothing of all kinds, diapers, a few books, a couple of toys, baby food, and some random powders that Dean had found with pictures of infants on the containers. The Winchesters snuck out of the house and hurried to their Impala as fast as possible, lest a neighbor see what they were carrying. Sam threw the baby bag into the back of the car while Dean slid into the driver's seat.

"Can you hold the baby while I'm driving?" he asked his brother, holding out the child as his brother climbed into the passenger seat.

Sam accepted the little girl. "This is really unsafe," he muttered.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't even have a baby seat for her. She can't be buckled in."

Dean paused, thinking about this for a moment. "Well, I just won't get into any accidents," he decided, grinning at Sam. Sam just sighed and shook his head, strapping in and holding the baby close.

*

At the bunker, Kevin was reading a small paperback. He glanced up as Sam and Dean came in. His eyes widened when he saw the baby in Sam's arms and he threw down his book. The child looked even smaller, dwarfed by Sam's huge frame.

"Is it a vampire baby?" Kevin asked hesitantly, nervousness lacing his voice.

"What? No," Dean replied, making a face like the very idea was ridiculous - as if kidnapping a baby wasn't also fairly ridiculous. "Her name's Katie and she's fully human."

"You /named/ her?"

"No, she - " Dean sighed. This was taking too long to explain. He /seriously/ needed a beer. "Her name's just Katie, okay? Where'd you set up her crib or whatever?"

Kevin winced. "Your...room?" he answered, making the words sound like a question.

"/My/ room?" Dean glanced from Sam to Kevin in horror. Sam snorted. "Why /my/ room?"

"Sam's looks like a hotel room - not exactly welcoming, no offense, Sam - and I get too into my work to remember to take care of a baby. I thought she'd feel most at home in your room."

Dean groaned. "My bedroom has /guns/ on the walls!"

Kevin shrugged. "What are you planning on doing with the baby as of right now?"

Dean and Sam glanced at each other silently. Neither of them replied.

"Then she might have to get used to the sight of guns, if she's going to be staying," Kevin pointed out quietly after a second of waiting for them to answer him.

"What? No. She's not staying /here/ - " Dean glanced back at the tiny child. Just then, she yawned and threw one tiny fist in the air. He froze, staring at her. She was so little...and she didn't have a family anymore...

/Woah there, Dean./

"Here." He brusquely held out his hands for the child. "I'll go put her to bed." He took the child, balancing her on one hip as he adjusted the baby bag on his shoulder. He heard a snicker and turned to find both Sam and Kevin attempting to hide smiles and failing miserably. "What?" he snapped.

"Look at yourself," Sam said with a grin spread over his face.

Dean glanced down at himself. His clothes were spattered with blood, he had a knife at his waist, a baby bag was slung over his shoulder, and a baby girl was balanced on his hip. He sighed and marched off to his bedroom with what shreds of dignity he could save.

*

In his bedroom, Dean quickly found the "crib" that Kevin had constructed. The teenager had dragged a dresser into the room, pressed it next to the door, and pulled out the top and bottom drawers. A stack of books was supporting the rather unstable third drawer, which was drawn all the way out and lined with blankets. Dean settled the child onto the fluffy pile and dumped the baby bag onto his bed. Within a half hour, he had everything sorted into various places around his room, and the baby was crying again.

Dean turned to her with an exasperated expression. "What do you want?" he asked tiredly. "Food?" Dread filling his voice, he asked timidly, "Diaper change?"

Carefully picking her up, Dean hesitated before tentatively raising her and taking a whiff of the air near her bottom. He made a face and instantly pulled away. "Oh, come on," he said angrily, although the anger wasn't directed at her, replacing her in her makeshift crib and ruffling around in the baby bag.

Pulling out a diaper, he eyed her nervously. "Sam?" he called out his doorway. In seconds, his brother was in his room.

"What is it?" he asked worriedly.

Dean gestured to Katie. "Do you know how to change a diaper?"

Sam made a face and shrugged. "Kind of, I guess?"

Dean shoved the clean diaper at his chest. "Go get 'em, Tiger." He strode toward the door of his bedroom.

"Where are you going?" Sam demanded, standing helplessly in the middle of his brother's room as Katie screamed.

"I'm gonna call Cas," Dean replied. "He likes babies." He frowned, repeating his brother's words: "Kind of." With that, he left the room.

Sam eyed the baby and sighed. "Okay. Let's do this."

*

"You called?" Cas asked as soon as Dean opened the door to the bunker.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Dean demanded.

"I hitchhiked," Cas replied.

"Cas, that's dangerous," Dean told him worriedly, swinging the door shut behind his ex-angel friend as he entered the bunker.

"I don't think you're in a position to lecture me on danger," Cas retorted, glancing around the bunker. Before Dean could reply, Cas asked, "Where's the baby?"

"My room," Dean answered. "Sam changed her diaper and now won't go near her."

"Understandable." Cas strode down the hallway with Dean close behind him.

Katie was kicking and waving her fists in that way that children who do not yet understand their own bodies do. She looked idly at Cas as he entered.

Cas smiled fondly at the baby. "What's her name?"

"Katie."

Cas reached into the drawer-turned-crib and pulled Katie out. She clutched at the collar of his shirt curiously.

"Hello," Cas said formally, as if he was greeting a businessman and not a tiny baby girl.

Dean couldn't help but smile at the sight. Cas looked so happy with the little girl. His smile was adorable...

Cas glanced at him and Dean hurriedly looked away, clearing his throat.

"Why did you need me?" the ex-angel asked.

"You've handled babies before, right?" Dean asked.

"I learned nothing from those encounters," Cas replied slowly. "I know nothing about raising children."

"Oh, we don't plan to raise her," Dean replied instinctively.

"Then why did you not just leave her in the house you found her in?" Cas asked quizzically.

Dean paused, an incredulous look on his face. "Because - she's tiny, Cas! Her parents are dead because we couldn't get to them fast enough! And there was a body in the next room. We couldn't just leave her there."

"Are you sure you're not going to keep the child?"

"We're hunters, Cas," Dean replied, avoiding the question. "We can't raise a baby!"

"Why not?" Cas took a deep breath and looked down at the child. "I have an idea, Dean."

"I'd love to hear it," Dean told him gratefully.

"I move in and help you raise the child," Cas replied as if he was commenting on the weather, meeting Dean's gaze with a deadly serious expression.

There was a tense silence between the two men for a number of seconds. Dean was finding it difficult to breathe. Was Cas saying that he wanted to /raise a child/ with him? No - he was saying that he wanted to help the /Winchester brothers/ raise a child. Not just Dean.

"But what about your job - your life out there - " Dean tried. Not that he didn't want to keep the child - he did, he had to admit that - and not that he didn't want Cas to live with them - he did, so badly that sometimes it physically hurt - but there were so many flaws in this plan that he was just getting started listing them.

"I don't care about my life out there." Cas glanced down at the child and then turned a grin to Dean so sincere that Dean promptly forgot whatever it was he was about to say. "Please, Dean."

Dean passed a hand over his face as he thought desperately. This couldn't work. The Winchesters couldn't be happy like this - it wasn't how anything in their world /worked./ But he couldn't deny that he wanted to give this little girl a home. He thought for a second of all of the people they lost. What if Katie joined the list?

Suddenly, his resolve hardened. She /wouldn't./ Dean would never let anything happen to her - /ever./

"Okay," he muttered, still feeling as if he was making a terrible mistake. "Okay." He walked over to Cas and held out a finger, tracing Katie's chubby cheek. She raised a finger and grabbed his. He couldn't stop the chuckle that slipped past his lips. "Welcome home, Katie," he whispered.

*

The next few weeks were free of cases, free of danger, free of what the Winchesters' lives usually consisted of.

There was an empty bedroom that Castiel moved into down the hallway from Dean. This was where they decided Katie would also stay. Either Sam or Dean would often make runs to various stores to grab baby supplies they didn't know they needed, magazines on parenting, paint to ward the room against everything imaginable, and things such as an actual crib. Dean also took it upon himself to carve demon and angel repellants into various places in the room.

Then there was baby proofing the bunker. It was a rather hard task, seeing as the entire building was full of sharp corners and dangerous relics.

It was decided that until Katie was old enough to be trusted with not killing herself with one of the many weapons in the bunker, her world would be confined to the bedroom hallway. Sam duct taped pillows to the corners of the walls while Dean made all of the outlets safe. Lastly, they fitted a baby-gate into the end of the hallway.

Every night, one of the men read to Katie. Kevin preferred playing with the baby and Dean couldn't stomach the sickeningly sweet books Sam had taken from Katie's house, so the task usually fell to Sam or Cas to read to Katie. Sometimes, when Cas was reading, Dean would sit in the bedroom and watch them both. It was adorable - the ex-angel had a wonderful reading voice, one that always kept Katie rapt and at attention.

Someday, Dean knew he would have to confess his feelings for Cas. Right now, however, there was Katie to worry over.

/She'll have one hell of a family,/ he thought dryly. /Two hunters, an ex-angel, and a prophet./

/Yeah, Katie'll have one hell of a family. But it's a family that'll protect her until their dying breaths./

/And we've all seen how death works out for the Winchesters./


	3. Katie Learns to Shoot

"Okay," Dean started, holding his handgun more carefully than he ever would if he was alone. He turned around to face Katie, who was watching him with that slightly unsettling, serious expression of hers that she got when she was focusing hard.

"This is a handgun," Dean continued.

"I know," Katie replied. She wasn't pointing it out in a rude way, but instead just stating a fact.

"Yeah, I know, sweetie. Sorry." Dean always tried his hardest not to make Katie feel stupid or juvenile. She couldn't afford to be either, not in this type of life.

"You pull the trigger and it fires," Katie explained as if this teaching situation was the other way around, reaching out for the gun expectantly. Dean jerked the weapon back and she glanced up at him, startled.

"There's more to it than just that," Dean told her apologetically. Slowly, he walked her through the various aspects of the gun - filling a magazine, loading it into the weapon, racking the gun, turning the safety on and off, where to point the barrel while not shooting it, and when to put her finger on the trigger. Once he was confident that the eight-year-old fully understood, he handed her the weapon as if it was made of fragile glass.

Katie's small brow was furrowed in concentration. Dean smiled fondly at how adorable she was but forced himself to focus, watching his adoptive daughter carefully to ensure that she was being completely safe with the weapon. Her finger started to drag toward the trigger and Dean reached out a warning hand. She corrected himself before he could do it for her, though. She was truly becoming independent.

Dean wasn't sure how he felt about that.

The pair was already in the gun range but had yet to put on their ear and eye protection. "Now," Dean said, bending down, "if you're using a gun in a fight, you don't need ear or eye protection because it can keep you from fighting very well. But when we're practicing in here, always wear these." He grabbed the plastic glasses and earmuffs down from their hooks on the back wall and adjusted them on Katie's head. Her eyes blinked out at him, magnified ever so slightly behind the glasses while the earmuffs dwarfed her already tiny head. She was small for her age, which worried Dean - not that he had admitted that to anyone.

"Why do I have to wear these?" she shouted, her voice gradually increasing until she obviously found a volume that she liked. Dean understood why, but couldn't hold back a chuckle all the same.

"The earmuffs are to protect your ears," he explained loudly, "and the glasses are because a bullet shell could hit your eye."

Katie nodded, a glazed look coming into her eyes as she silently tried to understand this. Before she could ask him why her ears needed protection or what a bullet shell was, Dean steered her over to one of the stations. He had already set up a paper target in the shape of the silhouette of a man downrange.

Carefully, he held Katie's arms up until they were in the correct position. "Look down the barrel of the gun," he told her, "and line up the white dot in between the two black stick things. You see them?" He hoped that he wasn't condescending in his explanation of a sight, but he honestly hadn't thought his explanations through before attempting to explain everything to Katie.

He released Katie's arms and the gun fell downward, suddenly stopping as the child adjusted her stance to support its weight. Arms trembling slightly, she aimed, slid her finger onto the trigger, and fired. Dean didn't move a single muscle, but his daughter flinched backward at the resounding bang, lowering the gun. She stared up at him with wide eyes.

Dean chuckled, patting her back. "Loud, huh?" She nodded wordlessly, but turned back to the target and raised the gun once more.

Dean squinted as he gazed out at the paper. From what he could see, she hadn't even hit the target.

Sam had acted like he was insane when he had announced the previous night that he was going to train Katie to fight. "She's /eight,/" Dean's younger brother had pointed out incredulously.

"So?" Dean had asked. "She can recite the exorcism spell word for word and she draws devil traps on her/napkins./"

"I know, but still - she has /some/ semblance of a childhood," Sam had replied. "Let her keep it."

"I'm not going to let her go on /hunts,/ Sammy. I'm just going to show her a few things so she can defend herself. That's all."

Sam had sighed, thrown his hands in the air, and let the subject drop.

Kevin had had a similar reaction but was more easily convinced. Castiel, on the other hand, had wholeheartedly agreed with Dean. In fact, he had wanted the child to start training sooner.

"I began fighting the moment I was born," the angel had pointed out years ago.

"Yeah, but you popped out a full-grown angel, right?" Dean had fired back. Cas had just raised his eyebrows and fallen silent.

Now, Dean watched as this tiny eight-year-old stared down the barrel of a handgun and focused on the paper target shaped like a man. /Am I doing the right thing?/ he wondered suddenly.

/Yes. The wrong thing would be to let her grow up defenseless in a family targeted by every supernatural being - and a fair number of humans - imaginable./

Convinced, Dean watched his daughter stoically as she fired round after round.

Finally, the gun's magazine was empty. Katie lowered the weapon much too casually, wincing in pain from the effort of holding it aloft for so long. Dean hurried to take the gun from her and laid it on the counter in front of them. He mimed taking off the earmuffs and Katie did so, doing the same with her eye protection.

"How did I do?" she asked, turning back to the target anxiously.

"Hey, look at me," Dean hastily said, grabbing the young girl's shoulder and turning her to face him. Dean had already checked - she had hit the target a grand total of one time, and it had been in the white space /around/ the silhouette. "Today was your very first day using a gun, and you learned everything you need to know right before you used the weapon instead of getting some prep time."

She watched him silently, obviously not understanding.

"You did a great job for your first time. Keep that in mind, okay? I don't want you to get discouraged."

"I won't," Katie replied. "Kevin tells me that in my lessons all the time."

Dean nodded. "Okay, sweetie." He released her and let her see the target. She was silent for a moment and Dean watched her nervously.

Then she turned back to him and pointed out, "At least I hit the target."

Dean laughed, relieved. "Atta girl."

Once he had removed the target, he had Katie put her eye and ear protection back on and point the gun into the air with one hand while holding the target in the other. He snapped a quick picture and grinned.

Their family photo wall was going to be /so/ badass.


End file.
